You're a douche ass-hat!

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The Internet allows students to insult others in relative anonymity, and experts who study cyberbullying say it can be more damaging to whimpering little pussies than traditional bullying like fist fights and classroom taunts.

Fixed.

Bullshit. If some guy punches me in the face at school, I'm gonna feel a hell of a lot worse than if some dude calls me a "faggit lolz" on MySpace. It would be more accurate if it simply said depressed emo teenagers shouldn't kill themselves because they can't deal with being made fun of.

Edit: Also, for anyone who uses the defense "they wouldn't leave him alone" or something to that effect, that's also bullshit. Any kid who spends enough time on the internet that he kills himself due to the sheer amount of times he's been called a fag, sure as hell has a grasp on common technology and can close a window and block a contact here and there.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SouthJag

I don't get it, Shiny. Do you think that just because you can close a chat window you can end all insults coming at you on a daily routine?

Okay, let me try to make my point a little clearer. From what I read of the article, the kid killed himself because bullies from school were calling him names on the internet. So, he was called names on the internet as well as at school. Next...

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In fact, it seems kinda backwards to say that. I'm calling bullshit to your argument entirely. For one, physical pain can be overcome. No big deal, right? Get a black eye? Just wait a few days and it'll be good as new. Broke a leg? S'cool, just get a cast and you'll be fine.

Touche. However: Have you ever broken your leg? It's less of a "Throw a cast on the bitch and it'll be fine" and more of a "Holy fuck my bone just cracked this is the worst pain of my life". Also, emotional pain can be overcome as well. Maybe not as quickly or as healthily as physical pain, but I know that there are some things in my life I thought I'd never get over and I did. It may have taken a couple of years but depression is something that can be worked out of, if you've got the willpower and strength to pick yourself up and move on. This kid obviously did not posses that willpower.

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What seems to be misunderstood is the whole "fag" issue. Regardless of what the bullies called him, the kid was still being hit multiple times on a near-daily basis with negative reinforcement. If you go in to school and everyday someone punches you in the arm, you'll eventually not feel it anymore. Doesn't work the same way with verbal insults, at least not for all teenagers. Some have emotional wells that run infinitely deep, but hear this -- they're in the minority.

I realize that everyone is different and we all have our own tolerance levels to certain things, but please don't try to seriously back a kid who killed himself because people were making fun of him. He obviously needed help and wasn't getting enough attention. It's obvious this "e-bullying" was going on for some time, unless somebody wants to tell me next that he killed himself after a week, which at this point wouldn't entirely surprise me.

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I don't know how well this example'll work, but here goes. When I was 13, which was 11 years ago, my parents divorced and my mom and I moved from the north part of the U.S. to the southern part. I started 6th grade in a brand new part of the nation (to me) with brand new people in an environment I was wholly unfamiliar with.

For me, 6th sucked ass. I was constantly hounded about being from the North, so much so that the mere location of my birth became an object for insulting me and it wasn't very fun. Granted, I didn't threaten to nor kill myself, but still the fact remains that for no other reason besides my place of birth, I was made fun of immensely. To the same degree, I think they were jealous because I still had all my teeth intact, and still do. Ftw.

Well it seems like you and I have been through much of the same. There's a town slightly smaller than the one I live in, about 9 miles south of here called Mendocino. I went to the same district of schools my entire life, Fort Bragg Unified. Born and raised here. The kids from Fort Bragg and the kids from Mendo don't particularly like each other, and while it's not quite the same as dealing with it at school every day, living that close can change that quickly. It was not uncommon in grade school to be walking down the street and be called a "Fort Fag" and have something thrown at you, be flipped the bird, or, in the absolute worst of situations, get a full on shot of somebody's ass hanging out the window. And yes we'd get irritated, and yes, our feelings would be hurt; but we would not kill ourselves over it.

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Times have changed dramatically. Boys, especially teenage ones, don't have the same size emotional well as teenage boys did back in the 70s or 80s, or hell even early 90s. Whether or not this kid was in fact homosexual is not the issue -- reinforcing a negative stereotype on someone is damaging.

The point I'm trying to make is, no matter which way you slice it, bottom line is this kid killed himself because he was being bullied. Whether he was being bullied a little or a lot is irrelevant. Being bullied is a big part of growing up and so is learning to deal with it. Apparently some people just weren't equipped to handle it.


Anyways, it's 3:30AM and I am extremely tired. I hope I got my point across without sounding like too much of a douchebag.

There's nowhere I can't reach.